DAVAO CITY, Philippines?In these day and age of information readily made available on the Internet and other multimedia sources, a teacher here has reverted to an old tool in teaching her students.

Leonila Liberato, 62, an English teacher at the Talomo Central Elementary School, believes lessons and valuable information can be drawn from editorial cartoon.

Liberato won the Inquirer?s laptop prize in September for the study guide she submitted to the Inquirer in Education (IIE) Lesson Plan Contest. Her entry teaches critical reading through the use of editorial cartoons.

Asked why editorial cartoons, she said many of the students were visual learners. Through the editorial cartoon, she said, the students ?are encouraged to be acquainted with the current issues happening in our country today. This also promotes higher order of thinking among the students.?

She said many teachers had been complaining of lack of books and materials to use in their classrooms, but books were not the only source. ?There?s the newspaper, which is very accessible and very cheap.?

An avid reader of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, she said the paper ?is a rich source of materials and information that teachers can find very useful.?

She said she admired the Inquirer not only for its insightful contents and editorial cartoons, but also for the good layout. ?Even if sometimes it is controversial or one-sided, I stick to it,? she said.

Liberato, who was recently assigned to work at the Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao (BEAM), a joint project of the Department of Education and Australian government, said she intended to use her winning lesson plan once she returned to regular teaching. She also had an idea to include Inquirer?s ?Read Along? program in her lesson plan.

Liberato said it was upon the encouragement of her husband and co-teachers that she joined the contest.

Dennis Jay Santos

Copyright 2015 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.